Growth and Evolution of Muslims in Subcontinent - Muhammad Bin Qasim And Raja Dahar Conflict - History of Pakistan

Growth and Evolution of Muslims in Subcontinent

For centuries Muslim rulers have been eyeing Sub-continent for various reasons, they have tried attacking Sub-continent a number of times and even ruled over this part of continent. One of the conquerors who managed to rule over part of this movement of continent was Muhammad-bin-Qasim, who was sent by Hajjaj bin Yousif, his uncle and father in law. The story of Muhammad bin Qasim conquering Sindh unfolds, when it is said that the king of Sri-Lanka sent some gifts on ships to the caliph of the super-power Umayyad Caliphate, which were captured by some pirates and those pirates made the people on board their captives, those pirates belonged to a shipping port in Sindh called Debal; according to some muslim historians this confiscation of gifts was on the orders of Raja Dahir, who was the king of Sindh at that time, after this tragic incident Hajjaj bin Yousif sent a letter demanding the return of those gifts, but Raja Dahir replied that he had no authority over those pirates and there was no one who was more powerful than those pirates (reference of book Fateh Nama Sindh Chechnama page no 115); this made hajjaj bin yousif angry and then he planned to attack Sindh with full force.If we consider this story to be the truth then there are some arguments which this story fails to answer; the first argument is how can one man send a whole army and have them cover such a huge distance just to retrieve some gifts and free some muslims and the second arugument is; this incident is only recorded in Cechnama and there is no other record of such an incident in other history books of that time. These are some arguments this story fails to answer, but there is one logical reason, among others for the attack on Sindh that is given by Mubarak Ali in his book (In the Shadow of History, chapter The Arab conquest of Sindh, page no 138), according to this historian; the reason for the attack by Hajjaj bin Yousif was not to save some people from pirates, but it was based on political and economic interests and he had no interest in human life. This logic can be backed by how cruel Hajjaj bin Yousif was when he was governor, he slaughtered thousands of muslims and even attacked Khana Kabba, bombarded its walls which resulted in the breaking of Hajre Aswad. Before sending Muhammad bin Qasim, Hajjaj tried to attack but failed miserably, one of his commanders Amir bin Abdullah requested Hajjaj to send him to invade Sindh, he refused and turned to astrologers for help who advised him to send Muhammad bin Qasim. According to Dr Mubarak Ali in his book (In the Shadow of History page no 142) he says that the reason for sending Muhammad bin Qasim was not because of astrologers rather the reason was; he was inexperienced and Hajjaj thought he would do anything what he ordered him to do, because Muhammad bin Qasim was his relative and he had sent him to Sheraz, a city in Iraq, to have his military senses sharpened, after getting a letter from Hajjaj saying that he was chosen to invade Sindh; Muhammad bin Qasim prepared himself and waited for the army to arrive to lead them. His army had 6000 horses with trained men, 3000 camels with everything of necessity. Along with all this they even got 30000 dirham for their journey, Hajjaj decided to send trained and experienced commanders to help Muhammad bin Qasim and he also decided to command the war himself by sending letters. Hajjaj wanted to ensure the victory, so he even sent ships with catapults to take down walls of Debal. Muhammad bin Qasim was heading from the land and ships were covering the sea side. In 712 Muhammad bin Qasim reached Debal to attack with his massive army; he conquered Debal and after that he went on to conqueror  Nerun fort  modern day Hyderabad. When People saw his bravery they found it best to give up without putting up fight and according to the book (In the Shadow of History page no 136,137), Dr Mubarak Ali says that elite people of Sindh, who were landlords decided to help Muhammad bin Qasim on the condition that he would not seize their properties. It is also said by historians that Raja Dahir was very harsh with Buddhists, who were living there; moreover, he was far worse to lower class hindus, and many hindus were not happy for the fact that he had married his own sister. According to (Fateh Nama Sindh) it was 10th of Ramadan,Thursday when Muhammad bin Qasim and Raja Dahir locked horns along with their armies. After defeating Raja Dahir; he went to his fort, which was in Aror, to take complete control. In his fort was his wife who burned herself rather than giving up.